Cities and towns around the country, including Missoula,. are being flooded with reactions to President Trump's temporary ban on allowing refugees and immigrants from certain countries

Betsy Mulligan-Dague, Director of the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center and the Olive Branch in Missoula, said Sunday's gathering in Caras Park was in direct response to President Donald Trump's executive order to limit refugees and to ban immigration from certain countries, something Mulligan-Dague says is suspicious in many ways.

"It looks suspiciously like religious profiling," Mulligan-Dague said. "Maybe favoring Christian refugees over Muslim refugees and looking at countries that are predominantly Muslim, and countries like Syria where people are in desperate need of relief and safe places that can harbor them. Missoula, like many other places around the country wants to play their part in helping some of those people that are displaced by war and travesty."

Mulligan-Dague finds small comfort in the fact that the ban is temporary.

"It is encouraging that it's temporary, but it still does target people that are primarily Muslim," she said. "I don't think you can say that Muslims are the problem. Some people say that walls and bans and keeping people out will keep them safe, and personally, I don't. It didn't keep us out of World War II, ans it's not necessarily a way to keep us safe. Compassion, understanding and building bridges with people in other counties is a way to keep us safe and make friends around the world."

Mulligan-Dague said there have been marches in one form or another in Missoula nearly every Sunday since Trump's election in November.